'Why should we subsidise incompetence?' - West Ham owner takes strongly-worded swipe at EFL clubs amid Premier League deal delay

West Ham United owner David Sullivan has hit out at Championship clubs following the Premier League's latest failed attempt to agree a new funding deal. Top flight stakeholders met earlier this month in the hope of thrashing out an agreement on the amount of money the league provides the EFL with each year.

The new proposal would have seen Championship, League One and League Two clubs share a reported total of £900m over six years, but the Premier League remained split. As such, they now risk having a funding figure imposed on them by an independent football regulator, which will be introduced as part of the new Football Governance Bill.

The money that trickles down is absolutely essential to the survival of many clubs in the lower leagues, but Sullivan has taken a swipe at those benefiting from the deal in the Championship, who he believes are living beyond their means. He even goes as far as to say the Premier League is subsidising some club's 'incompetence'.

“The flaw in the system is the Championship," the Hammers owner said. "These clubs are having financial problems because they’re paying too high wages and agent fees and some have managers on £1m a year.

“If you look at Serie B, the managers don’t earn that nor are players on £30,000, £40,000 a week! If the EFL can’t work with the funds we give them now, what suggests they can work with another £50m or £100m? They should manage their finances better and stop paying silly money. But they don’t want to because they’re competing to get into the Premier League. If we give to the EFL what they want, in five years we’ll be exactly where we are today.”

He added: “Some EFL owners are richer than those in the Premier League. Yet some clubs have got into trouble because their owners have gone for promotion but got fed up. Then there’s my old club, Birmingham. They sacked a good manager, John Eustace, when they were on the verge of the play-offs to bring in a flagship name in Wayne Rooney. It messed it up. Why should we subsidise their incompetence?”